Clannad After Story. I bawled my eyes out in so many episodes it became a major problem. When it ended I was in such a blue funk I could not even see pics of the Nagisa or Ushio without choking up. It still gets to me even after 2 viewings, and the music makes it that much worse. Oh, and parts of Kanon, and the last episode of Air, I was really choked up after watching it.

Saddest anime as in "power to make you cry", definitely Grave of Fireflies. I've seen anime haters get so into that movie they cried.Saddest anime as in "power to put into a sad state of mind and potential depression", is definitely Now and Then, Here and There. Only the cutesy character styles lessen the sad depressing brutality of that storyline. Saddest anime as in "that was so pathetic I can't believe I watched it and even laughed" has to be Ai Yori Aoshi (and Enishi). I don't how I managed to like it.

Clannad After Story is my pick because of the sense of loss that Tomoya displayed when Nagisa and Ushio, his daughter, died. What bothers me is that, in the visual novel which this is the source material, you can choose to let her live and the ending is a heck of a lot happier. I hate that about most anime based off of games or visual novels because it can do more harm than good to the overall plot by skewing some things or changing others.

I'm surprised "Code Geass" isn't mentioned (if it was, sorry but didn't see it). For me, that was a really sad anime. Or the ending was... the actual anime isn't. The last episode is super sad.What happens

Spoiler:

Lalouch dies

The impact of the ending is the saddest if you've seen the whole anime.

For me it is Grave of the Fireflies too. It gets to me on so many levels, it evokes so many thoughts that I find it very difficult to get it out of my mind.I first saw that movie about seven years ago, then with English dubbed voices. That was on a Friday night, just before bedtime. I remember that because it touched me so hard that I was barely able to sleep that night. I saw it again a few days ago, now with original Japanese voices and English subtitles. It did the same thing to me.The death scene of Seitsuko - where she turned her head to her brother, said "nii-san, ougini" and then turned her head back to the ceiling and went silent. Seita said in a voice-over: "she never woke up".Seiko get advised to take his sister's body to a temple for cremation, but obviously he can't pay for that, so he has to do the cremation at the place where they had lived all this time - all alone.Also the moment when Seika hesitates to close the lid on the basket in which he put Seitsuko's body, the few seconds that he looks at her face, knowing that he will never see it again.And then there is the most final scene of the movie, where Seika and Seitsuko are sitting together on a bench on a mountain, looking over a beautiful big city with lots of lights and life in it. I think it's supposed to make me feel better but it doesn't, it saddens me again because it implies that a lot of time has passed, and Seika and Seitsuko are still existing as ghosts in this same time area, and somehow unable to pass on to a next life as their religion would suggest. I can't help but wonder why.

It troubles me to know that events as depicted in this movie are still happening in real life today. There are always wars going on, and young children die, not directly of the bombs, but indirectly by malnutrition and starvation, because they are regarded as less valuable than the soldiers who are actually fighting the war, and so they get less or no food. And still there is nothing anybody can do about it.

It is about six month ago now, that I first saw Hatsune Miku. Four months ago I decided that I want to learn the Japanese language, because I want to be able to understand her singing myself, without depending on translations from others. Inevitably this got me interested in Japan itself, and learned little bits of its history. I know now that Japanese soldiers before and during the second world war were very very brutish and aggressive and violent. There was a reason why America dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, instead of one on Japan and the other on, for example, Germany.I am sure that many people will disagree with me, but I believe that the UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER is absolutely the best thing that ever happened to Japan in it's entire history. It has changed the people, opened them up to the world. Today, every Japanese person can be fully proud about his/her country.Japan's biggest export product now is it's culture, mainly in the form of anime and manga and music, but also in language and policics. At the same time America's main export product is violence and fear. Today's America even has a secret police! What a difference 50+ years have made.

And now, as I am writing this text, wondering when I will be able to do this in correct Japanese - if ever - and at the same time struggling over the kanji and Japanese words for East, West, South and North, and also at the same time having the images of this beautiful movie foremost on my mind again, I am still feeling sad. It seems such a selfish thing to want to do. What is the point anyway.But then I realise that am learning. It happened several times that I recognised some spoken words, a lot of the hiragana and katakana, and even some of the kanji. Me learning Japanese isn't going to make the world any better, but it helps to make me understand the world a bit better.It helps.

To me, the saddest anime I've ever watched was Hadashi no Gen or "Barefoot Gen" as some may know it. I really really tried to maintain my composure, but ... yeah, I failed. Miserably.

The hardest part about the movie is that it actually is based on real life events. When I saw these pictures: burned babies, people running around with their organic material hanging out ... it was too much. I cried for the whole movie.

I must admit, I've yet to see the second part, but I'm sure it's just as sad as the first one.

Hands down, Grave of the Fireflies. As if the anime was not sad enough...I watched the live action one with Matsushima Nanako. It got to me on the same level as Schindler's List or Passion of the Christ -- movies I've only watched once. Never again.